


into the lion's den

by fourteentimes



Series: still turning out [5]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Drabble Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28221999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourteentimes/pseuds/fourteentimes
Summary: Three EiLeo vibes written for Twitter requests.
Relationships: Tenshouin Eichi/Tsukinaga Leo
Series: still turning out [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1870684
Kudos: 9





	1. far from home (fae au)

The stars look different like this up in the mountains where the air is crisp and cold. Leo does too, hair painted silvery gray in the darkness. The moonlight drips off his features, and shadows paint over the rest. Eichi wants to capture him, freeze him in this moment forever, and savor his beauty. 

"You're not real." The hurt in Leo's eyes says otherwise. "You never were." 

"But I can be," Eichi says softly as he holds out his hand. He smiles softly, but Leo still flinches back. Frightened still, like a small animal. Eichi sighs and reaches into a pocket in his coat. The evening primrose blossoms in his hand, seed to bloom in an instant. Leo is frozen when Eichi reaches out to tuck it behind his ear. 

"...how?" 

"Hm?" 

"How did you find me?" 

Eichi can't help the way his smile curves wicked and sharp. Leo's cheek is warm, blood warm, against his palm. Flushed in the clean mountain air. "The wood is older and deeper. I'd find you anywhere the wilds reached." 

"I'm not ready to leave." 

"It wouldn't have to be for long."

"You say that now, and then what? An hour or two with you, and you spit me back out ten, twenty years later?" Leo shakes his head like that will snap him out the snare Eichi's laid around him. 

"Now, I returned you last time, didn't I?" Leo takes a step back, then another, stumbling until he hits tree at his back. Eichi closes the distance faster. "You said you'd come back. You gave me your word." 

"It didn't mean anything like that, and you know it," Leo grinds out. He's still the one who puts his warm, warm hands at Eichi's waist. 

"You still promised, and I'm just making sure you're still making good on it." This close, Eichi can almost make out the emerald green of Leo's eyes. "Come back, and tell me you still want to leave. You can go then, and I won't ask you to return." 

Leo's fingers dig into his hips. A reminder. A threat. "You swear?" 

(A promise.) 

"Of course." 

He kisses Leo then, bites at his lip until he tastes blood, until Leo opens up under him and lets the woods swallow them both.


	2. vending machine woes

"And you just press the buttons?" 

Leo gives some kind of noise of assent, probably, because Eichi lets out a delighted laugh as the machine  _ ka-thunks _ . 

"So it  _ is _ that simple." A can appears in front of him. Right in front of the  _ masterpiece _ he is writing with the bit of chalk he nabbed from -- well the where doesn't matter, but it's  _ in his way _ is the point. "For you." 

"Grr, you're just passing it off to me because it's not the one Keito wanted!"

But he still takes it with his free hand. If only to get Eichi out of his face. Also free--orange juice. The taste is sweeter than he remembers. 

"Ah, that's true, I guess." Eichi drops down next to him, a solid weight at his shoulder. He does know when to shut the fuck up at least, even if he steals sips of Leo's free drink every now and then too. "Almost done? I need more change."

"Just for that, I'm making it longer."


	3. rotten fruit (ghost eichi au)

"Ah, is this where you've been hiding, then?" 

Leo doesn't look up from his computer. The blue light makes his eyes ache, and he blinks furiously to try and clear the dryness. The rest of the office is quiet as Eichi elegantly takes a seat on his desk. Their hands are close enough to touch. 

"Aren't there better things to do in Hell than annoy me?" Leo says without taking his eyes off his spreadsheet. 

"I wouldn't say so," Eichi says as he reached for the picture frame of Ruka on Leo's desk. His hand passes through it. Acknowledging his presence is almost worth the look of annoyance that flits over his face. 

"Thought I told you to leave me alone," Leo says. God, his eyes hurt. His brain is tired, but there's still more numbers to crunch. "What was it, two years ago?" 

"Two years and five months and fourteen days," Eichi counts off dutifully. "I thought you would've gotten over it by now or something." 

"Well, I didn't," Leo leans back in his chair. His spine cracks, and it's euphoric, "so what's your grand plan now, Emperor?" 

"No plan. I missed you." Eichi leans over, and his fingers pass through the orange leftover on his desk from lunch. The fruit decays in an instant, sagging and moldering and rotting. Leo sighs as he plucks it off his desk with a few tissues and tosses it in the trash.

"I was going to eat that later." 

"You should've eaten it sooner, you're all skin and bones."

"You're one to talk." Leo scoffs. Eichi is perfectly preserved at 23, too thin and gaunt, the pallor of his skin made more pronounced by death. Every year, the distance between them grows. 

God, Leo is getting old now. 

"They'll be in town. You should see them," Eichi says almost conversationally. Almost. 

"Well, I won't." 

Eichi makes a not-quite believing noise as his hand wanders over to one of the pictures pinned to his cubicle walls, the last picture taken of them together, captured at their last live. Requiem. A catharsis and a rebirth and a goodbye, even if they hadn't known it yet. 

"You have less time than you think," Eichi says. He sounds equal parts wistful and upset. "There's always less time than you think." 

"I miss you too." Their hands don't touch, but Leo wishes they could, just for a moment. Leaving meant losing more than just Knights, after all. "Sorry I wasn't there." 

"You say that every time, you know. It made sense," and Eichi doesn't even look angry, doesn't even look upset, just gives Leo a gentle, indulgent smile like he did when they were teens, "I understood." 

"I still can't go." The moment snaps between them. Leo withdraws his hand and pulls up his spreadsheets again. Eichi sighs, hopping off his desk. 

"Change your mind, and I'll tell you what happens when you die." 

"No thanks, would rather just imagine it instead." 

"You're doing a lot less of that these days," Eichi says. "Are you sure you still remember how?" 

Leo gives him a wry smile. "Well enough." 

"If you do, I'll still be willing to help. Just say the word." His voice fades into the hum of the fluorescents, and once again, Leo is left alone.

(He leaves far too late, stumbling out bleary-eyed and too tired, and he knows he must be hallucinating or dreaming because-- 

"Leo-san." 

\--because--

"Tsukipi, we found you~" 

\--because--

"Leo-chan!"

\-- _ because-- _

"You made us wait, Leo-kun." 

\--because he's been running for too many years, and he doesn't remember why anymore, and it feels like coming home when they grab him by the hand and pull him into their arms.)


End file.
